Francis Robichaud

While there are currently some previews of Netgear’s V2 Skype handset, Nokia labs released a first version of a Gizmo client for all S60 series devices. The software allows SIP communication through Gizmo-Project’s servers. The advantage of SIP over Skype is quite simple: proprietary protocols vs public ! SIP is a communication standard that is now widespread and allows intercommunication between any SIP server. Moreover, some PBXes also support this protocol (see Asterisk).

Many probably wonder what’s the use of a SIP/Skype client on a cellphone. Well, first it gives you the opportunity to have better best international call rates than what your provider offers. The E61/E61i devices have an integrated wifi card that allows you to place calls as if you were on a computer. You can place calls for free to your other online contacts and benefit from the fast connections offered by the wifi technology. The current issue with wifi is it’s limit in distance, you need to constantly be close to the emitter which gives less flexibility than the cellular networks. Eventually, we can expect that the MAN (metropolitan area network) will give an excellent urban coverage and that wifi cellphones will overpass regular cellphone networks. We will then have inexpensive devices/plans because of SIP and the strong competition in this area.

Get Gizmo for your S60 device here

Surprisingly, after receiving back the package from Nokia Center in Canada, the keyboard backlight was working again. I suspect that the device was shaken during shipping and that the loose contacts have fixed themselves.

Well, thanks to Canada Post for saving some time. I am sorry readers, but you will not get a complete solution on how to fix the device. But trust me, if ever you face that problem, soldering the loose contact is probably candy. I hardly believe that the backlight would need replacement since it’s made of a special material which is reliable.

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A few weeks ago, I realised my Nokia E61’s keyboard backlight was no longer lighting. I’ve browse around the phone’s settings but software didn’t seem to be the issue. Since no Canadian provider supports this model, there are very few chances that Nokia’s Newmarket service center office in Ontario would repair the phone. I still took a chance and sent the phone to Newmarket hoping they would consider the phone as a E62 and repair it anyway. Unfortunately, I’ve received the phone back with a clear message saying that this model was not supported.

My Nokia E61 has never received any shock and has never been dropped. While the connections inside the phone should be OK, I will open up the phone and post a few pictures of it’s inside. I will probably discover a bad connection which I will need to resolder. If that is not the case, I will give a try to figure out if any of the test points are reporting a bad signal by using the Nokia E61 schematics found somewhere around the internet (Sorry I am not posting these here as I would probably run into problems with Nokia).

If ever any of you run into this problem with either your E61 or E62 Nokia phone, part 2 of this issue will be posted in the next weeks with either a working solution or a dead phone.